When Sam Cobb participated in the first
cohort of CompassPoint’s Leadership Program for Executives Serving Transition-Age Youth (TAY) in 2007, he was a new executive director at First Place for Youth (FPY) (www.firstplaceforyouth.org), an organization that supports foster youth in their transition to successful adulthood. Funded by The California Wellness Foundation, the TAY leadership program over the last four years has supported the professional and peer network development of 60 executive and senior managers from organizations statewide that work with at-risk youth in transition from foster care or state custody.
“I learned succession planning isn’t a singular event. You have to build a ‘leaderful’ organization – and that leadership has to run deep and wide within the organization. This is core to what I’ve wanted to achieve at First Place and this lesson has filtered back and through the organization."
Sam has used his TAY experience to cultivate his own leadership path and the paths of leaders within his organization. “CompassPoint has given me a foundation to define what leadership is to me and to think about the culture of the organization I want to lead,” he states. “I learned succession planning isn’t a singular event. You have to build a ‘leaderful’ organization – and that leadership has to run deep and wide within the organization. This is core to what I’ve wanted to achieve at First Place and this lesson has filtered back and through the organization. As we’ve advanced and grown, individuals within the organization have advanced and grown.”
Sam’s passion for building leaders is becoming well-known; he recently received a James Irvine Foundation 2010 Leadership Award. Christy Saxton, FPY’s Regional Executive Director, is one of four staff members who have participated in the TAY leadership program. She echoes Sam: “CompassPoint really pushes you to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of how you lead – to look at what works and what doesn’t and, if something’s not working, to question why you are still holding onto it.” Both highlight the care that CompassPoint takes in cultivating the program and supporting peer learning and networking.
One current employee is someone Sam met through his TAY peer network. Christy adds: “CompassPoint tries hard to make sure cohorts remain connected. This tremendous support from my cohort has been most valuable to me. If I have a question I can call a variety of people in my cohort from Eureka down to San Diego.” “Someone from First Place has been in every cohort, so it has been great to see the ongoing development of the TAY leadership program and that CompassPoint really takes the advice of previous cohorts and integrates it into the program. That’s pretty special.” In fact, First Place for Youth has been developing its own internal program modeled on the TAY initiative to support emerging leaders on staff. As a result, Sam says, “leadership competencies can run throughout the organization, not just the CEO.”
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